If you don't like a study, bury it!

[kurto]

More business as usual... if the results of a study contradict your politics... just deny it, dismiss it or bury it.:
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WASHINGTON - The Labor Department worked for more than a year to maintain secrecy for studies that were critical of working conditions in Central America, the region the Bush administration wants in a new trade pact.

The contractor hired by the department in 2002 to conduct the studies has become a major opponent of the administration's proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA.

The government-paid studies concluded that countries proposed for free-trade status have poor working environments and fail to protect workers' rights. The department dismissed the conclusions as inaccurate and biased, according to government and contractor documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

The Senate Finance Committee, which approved the agreement by a voice vote Wednesday, sent it to the full Senate for consideration this week or after the Independence Day recess.

The contractor is the International Labor Rights Fund.

In a summary of its findings, the organization wrote, "In practice, labor laws on the books in Central America are not sufficient to deter employers from violations, as actual sanctions for violations of the law are weak or nonexistent."

The conclusions contrast with the administration's arguments that Central American countries have made enough progress on such issues to warrant the free-trade deal.

The administration and its congressional supporters say eliminating trade barriers for U.S. products would open new markets in Central American for U.S. farmers and manufacturers. Critics say the deal would allow serious labor violations to continue in the countries covered by the pact — Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Hoping to lure enough Democratic votes to win passages, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) this month promised to spend money and arrange an international conference to ensure "the best agreement ever negotiated by the United States on labor rights."

Behind the scenes, the Labor Department began as early as spring 2004 to block public release of the country-by-country reports.
The department has now worked out a deal with the contractor to make the reports public, provided there is no mention of the federal agency or government funding.

At the same time, the administration began a pre-emptive campaign to undercut the study's conclusions.

Used as talking points by trade-pact supporters, a Labor Department document accuses the contractor of writing a report filled with "unsubstantiated" statements and "biased attacks, not the facts."


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